Molded parts made of elastomers and duromers are deburred in that they are cooled down by means of a cooling agent and treated with an abrasive. As a result of the cooling process, the burrs of the molded parts become brittle and they can then easily be removed by the high-speed action of the abrasive. Cooling down is achieved by a cryogenic cooling agent, such as liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide. For this purpose, deburring devices in the form of drums, rotary plates or revolving belts are employed to keep the molded parts constantly circulating. Cooling down can be achieved, for example, by spraying liquid nitrogen, while the abrasive is commonly applied. by blowers. Such devices have become known in a variety of versions such as, for example, West German Patent No. DE-PS 25 16 721 and West German Published Application No. DE-OS 33 33 431.
Although it is possible to satisfactorily deburr molded parts subject to low-temperature brittleness with such devices, they consume a relatively high amount of drive power. The reason for this is that the weight of the powered device parts far exceeds the weight of the molded parts to be deburred. Since not only the molded parts but also all parts of the device which come into contact with the molded parts have to be cooled down to the deburring temperature, these known deburring devices are not very well suited when it comes to a discontinuous mode of operation with prolonged standstill times. Every time operation is started up again, the whole unit first has to be cooled down to the operating temperature once again, a procedure which is time-consuming and calls for a high consumption of cooling agent. But, in fact, such discontinuous operations are becoming more frequent nowadays since many customers order small batches to be manufactured according to their individual specifications.